Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a method for controlling an image forming apparatus, which can automatically turn off the image forming apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with the enhancement of awareness about power consumption, power saving functions have been realized even at image forming apparatuses. As one function among them, there is a function of automatically turning off an image forming apparatus at a time specified for each day of the week (hereinafter referred to as a “weekly shutdown function”).
The weekly shutdown function is such a function that, for example, a user sets a time for each day of the week, like 21 o'clock for Monday, 20 o'clock for Tuesday, and 17 o'clock for Wednesday, and the image forming apparatus is turned off at the specified time for each day of the week. This function is expected to be mainly used for the purpose of reducing wasteful power consumption in a time zone where nobody will use the image forming apparatus at an office after business hours.
As described above, according to the weekly shutdown function, a time of turning off an image forming apparatus is specified in advance. However, one possible situation to occur is that an operator may not know the specified time, and may be operating the image forming apparatus when the specified time is reached. A problem with the weekly shutdown function is that, if the image forming apparatus is turned off while being operated, for example, paper maybe being just conveyed at this moment so that a jam may occur, or read data may be unable to be stored in a non-volatile device and therefore be lost.
In consideration of these circumstances, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-084073 discusses a technique for turning off an apparatus after all jobs in the apparatus are carried out. However, this conventional technique has the following problem. If the apparatus receives a large number of jobs immediately before a specified time for a weekly shutdown, the apparatus is not shut down until execution of all jobs is completed. Therefore, if it takes a long time to carry out the jobs, this may result in a delay of shutdown largely past the specified time.